King of Pop picture worth more than a thousand words

Christie's, a fine arts auction house, will allow bidders to compete for a portrait of Michael Jackson by Andy Warhol in New York on Nov. 10. The auction house told The Associated Press on Friday that the 30-by-26-inch portrait should amass an estimated $500,000 to $700,000.

The portrait is classic Warhol style and is one of a small group of silk-screened images of Jackson created in 1984. The painting depicts Jackson smiling in a red "Thriller" jacket, which seems to pop off the green background. Yellow and red squiggles are painted sparingly in Jackson's hair and facial features.

The seller is an anonymous private collector in New York who bought it from the Andy Warhol Foundation in the 1990s, according to an article from the New York Daily News Web site.

The image is part of 47 lots being auctioned, including two other Warhol paintings. A New York art gallery sold a similar Warhol portrait of Jackson in August to an anonymous buyer. The gallery would not disclose the price, but said it was more than a million dollars.

Click here to see Warhol's portrait of Jackson.